“And then,” Jimmy continued cheerfully, “the Goldsmith generator was knocked into a cocked hat by the Alexanderson generator.”
“They’ll have an improvement on that before long, too,” prophesied Herb.
“They have already,” Bob took him up quickly. “Don’t you remember what Doctor Dale told us of the new power vacuum tube where one tube can take care of fifty K. W.?”
“Gee,” breathed Herb admiringly, “I’ll say that’s some energy.”
“Those same vacuum tubes are being built right now,” went on Bob enthusiastically. “They are made of quartz and are much cheaper than the alternators we’re using now.”
“They are small too, compared to our present-day generators,” added Joe.
“You bet!” agreed Bob, adding, as his eyes narrowed dreamily: “All the apparatus seems to be growing smaller these days, anyway. I bet before we fellows are twenty years older, engineers will have done away altogether with large power plants and cumbersome machinery.”
“I read the other day,” said Joe, “that before long all the apparatus needed, even for transatlantic stations, can be contained in a small room about twenty-five feet by twenty-five.”
“But what shall we do for power?” protested Herb. “We’ll always have to have generators.”
“There isn’t any such word as ‘always’ in radio,” returned Bob. “I shouldn’t wonder if in the next twenty or thirty years we shall be able, by means of appliances like this new power vacuum tube, to get our power from the ordinary lighting circuit.”